


The Boy In Red (Is Nobody's Friend)

by pingnova (WarriorLoverInc)



Category: Welcome to Hell - All Media Types
Genre: Drabble, Gen, Oneshot, happy holidays!
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-24
Updated: 2013-12-24
Packaged: 2018-01-05 21:01:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1098555
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WarriorLoverInc/pseuds/pingnova
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What sort of king would she be if people went friendless?</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Boy In Red (Is Nobody's Friend)

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote a stupid thing real quick (so it might be a bit meh) merry Christmas or whatever it is you celebrate I wish you postcard scenery and warm tasty food and the smiles of those you love. uwu

“Nobody’s my friend.” He kicked at the dirt. “I’m too different.”

And he was different. He wore skirts and a silly hat and wasn’t allowed around the class pets. Rejection stretched his smile further but maybe it strained his heart more than his mouth.

“Well,” she sighed, resigned. She threw an arm around his shoulders and pulled him closer, ignoring his unbalanced stumble and squeak of surprise. “It looks like I’m Nobody, then.”

“What?” he tried.

“ _Sssh_.” Her playful push sent him sprawling in the exposed dirt. Pebbles and crusty snow crunched beneath her boots as she stepped to his head, meeting his wide upturned eyes with a raised eyebrow. Was he really that klutzy? “C’mon, Sock.” She stuck out a mediating hand, an invitation. “Let’s make snow angels.”

For a moment it looked like he might refuse. Holes caved through his eyes like blossoming rot and ruts dug through his brow, deep with suspicion. It was fair, she supposed. Could anyone wholly offer companionship if it meant saturation in the doom following the Weirdo?

He studied her gloved hand, puffy and blue, and then her face, eyes wary emerald wells of hope. Was she lying?

She frowned. No. Lying was for humans. She, on the other hand, was something better.

The wells blinked, and there was a tangent wide as the sea sketched across his face. Excitement spiraled through his limbs and he pulled the hand into a surprise dance, swaying straight up from the ground and swinging her across the grinding gravel with an ethereal puff of laughter.

“Yeah!” vibrated between a full set of teeth. “Let’s━let’s make snow angels!”

“Okay!” she giggled, eyes reflecting his animated aura. The scenery spun by as they stumbled across the yard, feet light as cloud, cheeks biting, hands aching but tingling in his grip. “But you’re going to have to let me go!” Too late she realized━

“Sure!”

She fell butt first, feet flung into the air, her upper half thrown into a melting bank of snow.

“Ah…” she puffed in shock, the sky above spinning like a top. What pretty clouds.

“Joane!”

Sometimes people throw themselves into your life, and you just have to take it. Sock, as it so happened, was so different, so weird, that he didn’t even bother to be one of those. He took her invitation and then threw it away, universal rejection, but then in that intriguing style of his became an invitation himself.

Joane gazed up at the hand hovering above her nose and the bowed mouth and reopened wells just beyond that. Others might have snapped and whined because he was a stupid, reckless child too casual about his own actions, but Joane was a king, she had stooped to understand the red boy lurking at the edges, and she remembered his light, shining from the seams of his skin and the space between his bare teeth. He was the Weirdo, the Boy In Red, the one with nobody.

What sort of king would she be if people went friendless?

His hand retreated, he hesitated, one foot raised to leave. The wells were filling, his fingers skittering across an elbow.

“Sock,” she sighed, “help me up.”

Be a mirror, be a model. She smiled as she stood, snow melting off her face and eyelashes like icy tears. Stand tall, stay proud. Slowly, his worried frown vanished. Even slower, it curled upwards again, shining. To settle for the accident, he endured another little shove, quickly covering a short laugh. She smiled, nearly blind with his glitter, and started the race to unadulterated snow, ready for angels and ready for fun.

Be a leader, be a king.

Be Nobody.

**Author's Note:**

> Also on [Tumblr](http://pingnova.tumblr.com/post/70965365356/the-boy-in-red-is-nobodys-friend).


End file.
